WAR IN UKRAINE: February 16, 2023
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 358
Western intelligence indicates that Moscow is amassing fixed-wing and rotary aircraft near Russia’s border with Ukraine, two officials privy to the information told Financial Times. As concern mounts surrounding the potential of a greater airborne attack, Ukraine’s Western allies have rallied to provide Ukraine with air defense and artillery ammunition. “The Russian land forces are pretty depleted so it’s the best indication that they will turn this into an air fight,” one of the officials said. “If the Ukrainians are going to survive… they need to have as many air defense capabilities and as much ammunition… as possible.” Moreover, intelligence suggests that over 80% of Russia’s air force is “safe and available,” a senior NATO diplomat told the Financial Times. “So we are expecting that they’re (Russian forces) preparing to launch an air campaign,” the official added.
A Ukrainian soldier has told CNN of the "difficult" attempts to defend the few remaining routes into the Bakhmut, as more than 25 settlements were shelled in eastern Ukraine Tuesday, according to the military. Meanwhile, Russian forces have increased heavy shelling, rocket fire and missile strikes alongside attempted advances in several regions of Ukraine, including on settlements along the Kharkiv-Luhansk border.
Russian journalist Maria Ponomarenko has been jailed for six years for posting on social media about a deadly attack by Russian warplanes on a theatre in Ukraine. The court in Barnaul in Siberia found her guilty of spreading "fake news", under laws introduced aimed at stifling dissent about the invasion of Ukraine. She was also barred from activities as a journalist for five years - BBC